"Pete C" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 02:52:16 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 00:08:55 +0100, "Doctor Evil"
wrote:


Because Chicago is built on a grid system, not a medieval street
pattern.
The business section in the morning is light in traffic, as only traffic
going there is actually there. None running straight through as happens
in
the west end of London. Before the congestion charge, surveys found
that
the majority of vehicles in the west end were just passing through. It
is
those that need to be discouraged.


Negative control again. The correct way os to encourage people to
use alternative routes by building appropriate capacity through ways
and bypasses.

Total tripe. The place is on a grod system. No one goes into the financial
section unmels they have to . They square around it. In factr a fast grid
roads are around it.for that reason.

Building a road system that allows
anybody to travel anywhere at
anytime with no congestion requires
a lot of land space which we don't
have in the UK.

The UK has a land surplus. Only 7.5% of the land is built on, rural and
urban and inc gardens. Milton Keynes has the best road system in the
country. On a grid system, with no houses on the grid, only bushes and
trees, so the population are away from the high speed grid, and you can do
60-70 mph on the grid. A great place to drive around in.

The basic national road system was there pre-war. Only the motorways have
been added, and the odd by-pass here and there. Pre-war, if we had 1
million cars I would be surprise. Now we have 30 million that do about
twice the mileage as pre-war. People use cars to go and buy some bread.

Also there are hidden environmental
and quality of life costs.

The quality of life comes down to this:

1. Reducing dependence on cars - better town planning, eliminating large
supermarkets, etc.

2. Expanding the car - making more roads and allowing people to build on
open subsidised land and keep the love affair with teh car. If we are going
down the car, car, car route then allow people to spread and give them more
and better roads

If people have a resource they
pay a fixed charge for, like water,
waste disposal or road space,
then they tend not to use it as
efficiently as they might.

That is why road tax should be on petrol at the pump. They more you travel
the more you pay.